Born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, Samuel Spring became a force of moral and spiritual leadership during one of the most trying moments in American history. Educated at Princeton (then the College of New Jersey), Spring’s peers included Aaron Burr and James Madison. Later, as John Quincy Adams studied law in Newburyport, he occasionally attended Spring’s services—praising his powerful oratory, if not always agreeing with his theology.
As a young clergyman, Spring was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775. When General Benedict Arnold prepared for his march through the Maine wilderness in an attempt to seize Quebec, Reverend Spring volunteered to go, serving as both chaplain and medic.
He marched from Charlestown to Newburyport, where he preached an electrifying sermon to rally the troops. That sermon left such a deep impression that members of the local Third Religious Society later invited him to return as their pastor.
In Spring’s journey north with Arnold’s army he endured the same horrors as the soldiers: freezing rain, starvation, disease, and despair. He cared for the wounded, founded a makeshift hospital in a Quebec church, and is remembered for carrying a wounded Benedict Arnold from the battlefield. Reverend Spring’s grit and compassion became a lifeline for men who faced not only the enemy but the brutal indifference of winter and wilderness.
After the failed Quebec campaign, Spring remained with the Continental Army until 1777. Only then did he return to Newburyport, accepting the call to ministry he had delayed in the name of patriotic duty. For the next 42 years, until his death in 1819, Reverend Spring led what is now the Central Congregational Church. He became a cornerstone of civic and spiritual life in post-Revolutionary Newburyport.